To everyone who joined these forums at some point, and got discouraged by the negativity and left after a while (or even got literally scared off): I'm sorry.

I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.

I was a very, very sensitive teen. The atmosphere of this forum as it is now, if it had existed in 1996, would probably have upset me far more than it would have helped.

I can handle quite a lot of negativity and even abuse now, but that isn't the point. I want to help people. I want to help the people who need it the most, and I want to help people like the 1996 version of me.

I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but as it is now, these forums are doing more harm than good, and I can't keep running them.

Thank you to the few people who have tried to understand my point of view so far. I really, really appreciate you guys. You are beautiful people.

Everyone else: If after everything I've said so far, you still don't understand my motivations, I think it's unlikely that you will. We're just too different. Maybe someday in the future it might make sense, but until then, there's no point in arguing about it. I don't have the time or the energy for arguing anymore. I will focus my time and energy on people who support me, and those who need help.

-SoulRiser

The forums are mostly read-only and are in a maintenance/testing phase, before being permanently archived. Please use this time to get the contact details of people you'd like to keep in touch with. My contact details are here.

Please do not make a mirror copy of the forums in their current state - things will still change, and some people have requested to be able to edit or delete some of their personal info.

Let me start by saying this: I don't know how I did without a rice cooker in my first year. It's so versatile that it's unbelievable. Cheap as chips to operate too! Here are some tips for those of you who are a little strapped for cash.

Rice cooker: $13 at Walmart. Get the most basic one, biggest bang for the buck.

Rice: buy a *BIG* bag of rice at the beginning of term, preferably one that you know tastes good. I recently got a 7kg bag of Japanese medium grain from Bestbuy, reduced from $18 to $13. Really tasty.
Recipe: follow the guidelines on the rice bag, mine is 2 cups water 1.5cups dry drice. The rice cooker comes with a measuring cup.

Eggs: Every morning I put a tiny bit of oil in the cooker, two eggs. Leave the lid on, the cooker turns itself off when they are done.

Later that same day I will cook rice in it, no need to wash it (the rice or the cooker). Cook more rice than you can eat, eat half later that day. After this the cooker will be semi clean again.

You can leave food in the cooker overnight, no need to refrigerate, but leave the lid on. When it's empty, leave the lid off to let it dry.

As long as you use the rice cooker twice per day, continuously cycling fried/"messy" food with steamed rice (to clean it) you really don't need to wash it. I haven't washed it in 2 weeks, just the lid occasionally.

The only reason I'm emphasizing this is because it's a long walk to my kitchen, and I hate to carry all my shit from my room to the kitchen. If you have a close kitchen, this is irrelevant.

Some recipe ideas:

Potato mash: Boil up some water with half a stock cube, add some frozen prawns/peas/sweetcorn/carrots/onions/insert vegetable here. Turn off heat, add dried potato flakes used for mash. Season with ground pepper or nutmeg.

Cook pasta: dead easy. When it's done, either drain the water using the lid and dispose water and add tomato sauce to pasta to get the perfect warmth food, or take out the pasta and use the remaining water to make mash using the above method.

Raw meat: fry small chunks first with chopped garlic, a little water and some soy sauce. Add veg as desired and fry together, or add stock to make broth.

I've made delicious spaghetti bolognese, delicious stew, egg and bacon, steamed fish or meat (on an elevated tray, closed lid), steamed vegetables, omelette, boiled eggs etc. A rice cooker is incredibly versatile, and the only limiting factor is your imagination. If you haven't got one already, I hope I've convinced you: you can save yourself a lot of money. Apparently you can cook cakes and bread too.

If you have a fridge with freezer and microwave (like me ) you can do all your cooking in your room.

DON'T use metal implements, the bowls are usually teflon non-stick. Goes without saying really.